


Fractured Family Picture

by Ghostly_Presence94



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23865784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostly_Presence94/pseuds/Ghostly_Presence94
Summary: Paula finds out her father is an abuser and Raquel is there for her.
Relationships: Raquel Murillo | Paula Vicuña, Raquel Murillo/Professor | Sergio Marquina
Comments: 14
Kudos: 90





	Fractured Family Picture

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I had an idea and since I haven't seen anything like this posted, I wrote it! I translated this from a fic I posted today. I got inspired by a scene in Big Little Lies season 2. If you've seen it, then you'll know!

"How did it go today?" Raquel asked, putting the bags she brought in with her on the kitchen counter.

Sergio looked up from the notebook he was correcting and put it down to help Raquel with the bags.

"Academically, fine but... I don't know. I noticed her distracted."

Raquel frowned as she pulled food out from the plastic bags.

"Distracted, how? Distracted like she had no interest in what you were teaching her today or did she get in like that from Charice's house?"

"She got in distracted. I asked her if anything had happened and she said no. She worked well but the enthusiasm she usually has wasn't there today."

"Where is she?"

Sergio pointed to the terrace. "She took her iPad outside about 30 minutes ago."

Raquel nodded. "Do you mind putting everything away?"

"No, no. Not at all. Go."

Raquel left the kitchen for the terrace a little worried. She was shocked by what Sergio said to her. When she left Paula at Charice's she was happy and excited to show her the video she had edited for her birthday.

 _Did she have a fight with Charice?_ , she thought.

Raquel slid the screen door gently to avoid startling Paula. She saw her sitting on the couch, holding the iPad more tightly than she needed to and staring at a fixed point on the ocean with an intensity she had never seen in her daughter's face. At that moment she knew that what Sergio saw was not wrong.

"Paula?" Raquel gently called to her.

Paula took a moment before turning towards her mother, but when she did, Raquel could see something else: a deep sadness, very similar to the one she had felt not long ago.

Raquel closed the screen door, her eyes on Paula, and sat down by her side. Paula had once again gone back to staring at the ocean.

"What's wrong? Did something happen at Charice's house?"

Paula shook her head slowly.

"Did something happen on your way back? From her house to here."

Once again, Paula moved her head from right to left slowly.

Raquel had to resist the urge to raise her voice and tell her that something had to happen for her to be like this. But instead of doing that, she took one deep breath, thinking about what would be the best strategy for Paula to tell her what was going on.

 _Patience_. 

Raquel stood up and sat on the little table directly in front of Paula, as it seemed that whatever was in front of her had her full attention.

"You and I are going to stay here until you're ready to talk. I'm not going to be at ease until I know what's going on with you. If we have to stay here all afternoon and all night, then we'll stay here all afternoon and all night. Okay?"

Paula looked at her for a few seconds and nodded. The expression on her face was breaking Raquel’s heart. 

They sat, one in front of the other, for an hour without speaking. Every minute that passed without Paula speaking, was another minute where Raquel came up with a new tragedy in her head that explained the obvious pain in her daughter's face. More than once, Raquel had to resist the urge to hug her and tell her that whatever it was, she would always be by her side, but she could detect that Paula was processing something and that action would only have interrupted her process. Finally, when Raquel was thinking of taking out her gun and killing the person who had caused her daughter pain, Paula spoke up. The iPad was still in her hands. 

"I had forgotten. I thought it was normal. I'd forgotten."

Raquel stared at Paula, mainly because she was confused, but also because she heard her voice thinking that perhaps today she would not hear it.

"I don't understand, love. What did you forget? What did you think was normal?"

Paula looked at Raquel and tears fell from her eyes; tears that should have fallen hours ago but the shock hadn't allowed them to.

"It was wrong. What he was doing was wrong and I thought it was right. Mum..."

Raquel knelt down in front of Paula with tears running freely down her cheeks, as she conjured up a thousand and one scenarios in her mind.

"Paula, please. If someone has hurt you, I need you to tell me. Sergio and I will protect you _always_. But I need you to tell me," Raquel begged, her voice breaking on that last part.

"We’re already far away from him."

With those words, Raquel knew immediately. There was only one person she really wanted to keep away from both of them.

 _Alberto_.

Paula unlocked the iPad and pressed play on a video placing the device on her lap. Raquel looked down and saw, through the narrow space of a nearly closed door, how she and Alberto were arguing in the main room of her old house; she saw how the argument escalated and how Alberto hit her in the stomach so hard, that Raquel fell to the floor on her knees trying to catch her breath; she saw how Alberto grabbed her by the hair and dragged her a few steps and kicked her in the stomach. She heard the insults and relived her ex-husband's aggression so vividly, that she was sure she wouldn't be able to get up from the floor. But Paula placed her hand on top of hers and brought her back to the present.

"I thought it was normal, but in all this time, I've never seen Sergio treat you the way Dad treated you. He's never yelled at you and never hit you. Right?"

"Never." Raquel responded immediately by looking directly into her eyes. Alberto wished he was half the man Sergio is.

The video continued and Raquel, finally coming to her senses, lifted the iPad from Paula's legs and locked it. Raquel stared at the black screen of the device and only one thought occupied her brain at that moment.

 _Paula has just found out that her father_ _is an abuser._

"When did you film this?" Raquel asked, trying to buy some time to organize her thoughts.

Paula started fidgeting with the seam of her shirt and became visibly nervous.

"Honey, you're not in trouble. I just want to know how long you've had this video."

She relaxed a little. "It was the night before my last birthday with Dad still living at home."

Two years. Paula had known about Alberto's abuse for _two years_. Raquel had never felt she had failed as a mother more as she did at the moment.

At Raquel's silence, Paula explained in more detail.

"I was very excited because all my friends were coming the next day and I couldn't sleep. I heard you talking and thought maybe you were discussing my birthday present. So I got up and took my iPad with me because I hadn't tried the camera yet."

Hearing Paula, Raquel remembered that night. She had just gotten off the phone with her mum to, jokingly, admonish her for giving a 7-year-old girl an iPad, when Alberto arrived. The argument began because he had told her he wouldn't be home until late the next day.

"Can't you ask someone else to do it? It's your daughter's birthday."

"They want the best in forensics and that's me."

"Can't they ask the second best in forensics? It's one day. You can continue the investigation the next day. It's not a very complicated arrangement, Alberto."

"I've already said I’ll do it, Raquel. Why do you even want me here in the first place? It's a children's party. I'd rather be doing something important than passing out cupcakes. Besides, I'm going to get here before you bring the cake out. More than enough."

"Father of the Year."

She remembered how Alberto's eyes dilated to black and the next thing she knew, she was on the floor trying to breathe. It's one thing to feel the blow, another to realize that the person you had chosen to spend the rest of your life with and had started a family with, had betrayed the love, trust and respect you had for each other, but it's a completely different feeling to _see it_.

After every punch, insult and kick, your brain distorts the facts. It modifies them by silencing the voice that tells you to run; it modifies your ability to use logic; and finally, your brain modifies the ability to say: it's not my fault.

Raquel put the iPad on the couch and took Paula's hands. She decided, at that moment, not to lie to her. Obviously, she wasn't going to include all the details, but she wasn't going to lie to her.

"You're right. What your dad did to me wasn't right. It's never right to hit someone. If I had known you knew, we would have left sooner. I'm sorry."

Despite her 9 years, Paula was able to understand the gravity of the situation since she played, by pure chance, the forgotten video she had shot two years ago and saw, with greater maturity and greater wisdom, the monster that was her father. She also understood that nothing was her mother's fault and that she always tried to protect her. Even those times when Paula told her she wanted to go live with him.

 _The pain I must have caused her_ , Paula thought.

"It's not your fault. It never was."

Raquel couldn't hold back the flood of tears for another second. After months of therapy, she was able to accept that Alberto's abuse was not her fault. But until that day, she always blamed herself for allowing the abuse to continue. Paula's words acted as balm for her wounds.

All this time, Raquel's greatest fear was that Paula would resent her for taking her away from her father. How do you explain to a child that their father is not a good man? How do you explain to your daughter that the image she has of her father is a lie? How do you destroy her world? Raquel's tears were also tears of relief. She no longer had to make superficial excuses or feel anguish waiting for the day when Paula would ask her to let her go back to her father.

Paula stood up and hugged her mother, who was still on her knees. Raquel rested the side of her face on her daughter's stomach and they both cried until they had no more tears left to cry.

Inside, Sergio was on the verge of an anxiety attack. It had been three hours since Raquel left to talk to Paula. He didn't think it was serious at first, but when he saw Raquel sitting in front of Paula and stayed there for more than an hour, unable to see her face because the chair was blocking his vision, Sergio became worried. So much so that he started pacing like a caged animal. Then, when he heard the cries... It took all his strength not to run out to the terrace to ask what was wrong.

Eventually, he reached his breaking point. Either he went out to see with his own eyes that they were all right, or unfortunately, they were going to have to change the floor of the living room because he was going to wear it out from all the pacing.

Sergio opened the screen door and saw Raquel sitting on the couch with Paula’s head resting on her legs - asleep. She was looking at her with the love that only a mother could have for her daughter as she caressed her head very gently.

Raquel turned to look at Sergio and smiled at him with an exhausted smile. He sat down next to Raquel and asked her in a whisper,

"What happened? I didn't want to interrupt, but I was worried sick."

Again, Raquel smiled at him but her expression quickly changed when she realized that she would have to show him the video. She stopped caressing Paula and waited a few seconds to make sure she didn't wake up, then she grabbed the iPad.

Also in a whisper, Raquel told him,

"I'm going to show you something, but I need you to not react. We can talk later."

Sergio felt chills from head to toe and all he could do was nod.

Raquel turned the volume down to 0 and then handed Sergio the iPad.

"The first video in the gallery."

Sergio looked at Raquel in confusion, but followed her instructions just the same.

All the nervousness he felt turned into pure rage. Sergio's thoughts jumped between how to make Alberto feel a fraction of the pain he had inflicted on Raquel and at the same time, find more ways to show her how much he loved her and how no one would ever lay a finger on her again. Not without suffering the consequences.

Sergio stood up, leaving the iPad on the couch and walked a few steps to the end of the terrace; covering his mouth with one hand, while making a fist with the other. He thought at that moment that it had been somewhat unfair of Raquel to ask him not to react. How do you watch a video of the woman you love being beaten without reacting?

Sergio turned around with unshed tears in his eyes and looked at Raquel. Then he looked down at Paula and understood.

 _This girl just got her heart broken_ , Sergio thought.

Raquel saw the frustration in Sergio's expression, she also saw the anger but most of all, she saw the love. That was all she needed to finally be able to heal. With Paula, Sergio and her mother, Raquel would be whole again.

She held out her hand and Sergio walked over to her, taking it. He sat down next to her and kissed her on the temple. Minutes or hours passed, neither of them was sure, but eventually, Raquel woke Paula up and they both put her to bed and wished her a good night.

In their room, they didn't exchange many words. Raquel was really exhausted and Sergio noticed that immediately. Still, when Sergio told her he was going to delete that video to get rid of all the memories of that period of her life, Raquel said no.

"Before you came into my life, I lived in terror every day. Every morning since I left Alberto, I always asked myself the same question: Will today be the day he takes my daughter away from me? And why is that? Because I had no evidence of his abuse."

Raquel pointed to the iPad.

"Now I have it. That's my guarantee, and I'm not going to wait to use it either. Tomorrow I want you to help me spread that video. I want it to be on the morning news, afternoon news, night news, even the tv of the fucking dentist's office. I sued him for domestic violence. That still stands. I want to make sure, God forbid, we get caught, that Paula doesn't end up with him.”

Sergio sat down in bed surprised that Raquel wanted to do this.

"Raquel, are you sure? Once we send that video out, there's no turning back."

“100%. Paula can't end up with him. If you had seen the pain I saw in her face today you wouldn't be asking me that question."

Sergio stood up and went over to her. "Okay. If that's what you want, then it’s done."

Raquel hugged Sergio and relaxed. "Thank you, darling."

"Whatever you need. I’m here."

Two days later, there wasn't a single TV, screen or newspaper in Spain that didn't have Alberto Vicuña's face with a multitude of headlines:

**THE BEST IN FORENSICS AND AN ABUSER AT HOME.**

**FORENSICS INVESTIGATOR ACCUSED OF ABUSE.**

**DAUGHTER OF FORENSICS INVESTIGATOR FILMS HER MOTHER’S BEATING.**

**HOW LONG WILL WOMEN CONTINUE TO BE IGNORED?**

**FORMER INSPECTOR RAQUEL MURILLO WAS TELLING THE TRUTH!**

And it was when Sergio called Raquel and showed her the live broadcast of Alberto being arrested at the agency, that she, after years, was able to free herself from him. She also knew that Paula was safe.

No matter what happened.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? I'm not saying this is the last fic I'll write for this wonderful fandom, but it's definitely the last one for a while. Uni is keeping me super busy. So until then, take care and feel free to return whenever you like!


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